Comforting and Creamy Pumpkin Laksa

 

The most comforting and heartwarming dish I know right now, is this creamy and spicy pumpkin laksa packed full of flavour. I used to cook it with chicken or tofu, until I realised it doesn’t even need those. Pumpkin is filling and rich ingredient and the dish is perfectly light just like this. Topped with crispy and salty peanuts and fresh coriander, this dish has become one of my basic weekly meals. You can add many other veggies as well, like chickpeas and red pepper to this dish so it’s also the perfect meal for using what you’ve got in the kitchen!

 

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Comforting and Creamy Pumpkin Laksa

  • Author: Viola Minerva
  • Prep Time: 25 min.
  • Cook Time: 15 min.
  • Total Time: 40
  • Yield: 2-3 portions (without noodles), 4 portions with noodles or rice 1x
Scale

Ingredients

  • 400 g butternut squash (about 1/2 medium sized squash)
  • 1 onion
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 34 dl vegetable stock
  • 3 dl coconut milk
  • 1 lime
  • about 40 g of fresh (or frozen) spinach
  • 0.5 tbsp palm sugar (or other brown sugar)
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce

Curry paste:

  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 4 cm piece of ginger peeled and grated
  • 4 kaffir lime leaves
  • 4 tsp of red curry paste
  • 2 tsp peanut butter
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • a bunch of coriander: just the stalks (reserve the leaves for garnishing)

For garnish:

  • salted peanuts
  • (coconut milk)

If wanted:

  • rice noodles or rice

Instructions

  1. Peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds. Cut into small cubes (about 1 x 1cm). Peel and cube the onion. Add the vegetables into a big sauce pan with the oil and fry until the pumpkin has browned a little.
  2. While the pumpkin and onion are cooking, mix all the curry paste ingredients in a blender. Blitz to a paste.
  3. Add the curry paste to the sauce pan. Add also the vegetable stock. Let it boil in medium heat until the pumpkin is cooked through.
  4. Blend about 2/3 of the laksa with a hand blender. (You can blend it all, but I like to have some pumpkin pieces to bring some texture!)
  5. Finally, add the coconut milk, juice of the lime, fresh spinach, palm sugar and fish sauce and let it simmer on low heat for 2-3 minutes.
  6. Finish each plate with salted peanuts and fresh coriander leaves. (If you want to make the bowl look pretty, spoon 1 tbsp of coconut milk on top!)

Notes

I made this laksa without noodles, but if you want, you can add them after blending and cook them through in the laksa broth.

Author: Viola Minerva

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